More Debt Info

Today I was proud of myself. I began to be proactive in dealing with my debt, specifically my zombie debt(s) that I feel shouldn't be on my credit report(s). I am hoping that by dealing with the issues surrounding my credit report(s) I may be able to improve my credit score. I do realize that these debts need to be paid, and in time I hope they will be. My goal(s) at this point in time is/are to clean up my reports as much as possible and pay on more current debt with hopes of removing them from collections.

Currently, on my EXPERIAN report I have 14 items listed. Seven items are credit card related, with multiple listing (see prior post); 2 items are utilities; 2 items are medical; and 3 items are related to defaulted student loan.

My student loans are in repayment and with some luck will be removed in July; I believe they will then be noted in a positive manner. The medical bill that are in collections will be dealt with hopefully by July. I have some other ones that I am paying on to keep out of collections and they should be paid in full by then. As for the cardit cards, well,,,let's say I have much reading and research to to do as to how best to handle them. That brings me to my proud moment,,,

Last month (2/7/09) I received a letter/notice from CAPITAL MANAGEMENT SERVICES, LP (located in Buffalo, NY) concerning my alleged deliquent debt of $xxxx.xx. After doing some digging I discovered a few items of interest:

1. this letter was from what some would call a "scavenger" debt collector; it would mark the second time that a third party collector has contacted me concerning this particular debt
2. this debt's SOL has run out (still double checking this to be sure, I am getting conflicting information. Update: PA SOL is 4 yrs, I will be posting the information I found) and is now a TBD (see prior post)
3. this debt is also past the time limit of 7 yrs for credit reporting (again need to double check)--7 years is the amount of time credit bureaus can report delinquent account information on your credit report [Note to self: I need to determine if it is the credit reporting agency is who I need to contact to remove this item or the collection agency]
4. in order to begin to deal with this debt I needed to make the collection agency validate the debt; I am using this article ("Make Collectors Prove You Owe") as my starting point

So my "proud" moment came when I actually wrote and mailed the validation letter--GO ME!!